The chancellor reassured businesses that their comments were being taken on board and that the government was considering them seriously.

"We are all aware of the fact that financial services remain our largest single sector," he said. "It plays a very important role in our external current account balance, providing one of the few bright spots... in the European Union.

"We understand it has a particular set of challenges... I hope the industry knows, helping to address those challenges will be a very high priority for the government."

Passporting and equivilence

Hammond went on to say that access to passporting would be important, but he was aware that business were looking beyond them to protect their interests. The chancellor added that equivalence is "one of the routes being discussed" but that it had "some challenges" and admitted that it "would not be a stable basis [on which] to plan long term".

Hammond also said that the Treasury would be conducting detailed analysis of the potential Brexit deals, but that it would not be published to keep the prime minister's negotiating hand secret.

"The best way to support this Brexit process is to give the prime minister the maximum space at the negotiation table... those who are trying to undermine that are seeking to close down that space," he said in an attack on MPs who are trying to force the government to reveal their plans now.

A transitional arrangement

The chancellor hinted that some form of transitional arrangements may be put in place while negotiations are going on to mitigate some of the potential economic consequences that could occur.

"One of the mitigations the industry is proposing is some kind of transitional period … we understand that," he said.

Yet again, he refused to rule anything out of the upcoming discussions, when pressed on whether the UK would remain in the customs union or single market. "Every time we rule something out, we hand a chip to our opposite numbers," he explained.

He also refused to provide reassurance to EU nationals living in the UK about their future post-Brexit, and insisted that the independence of the Bank of England was safe.